Manchester United to Launch Pre-Season Tour of USA, Reports Say

Manchester United are in discussions to launch a pre-season tour to the United States next summer, according to reports.

Rio Ferdinand, Manchester United’s centre back, revealed the news in a tweet (pictured above) to NFL athlete Chad Ochocinco this past Saturday. Ferdinand mentioned “We [will be] in the States [next] August” during a conversion on Twitter between the two athletes.

An unnamed source revealed to EPL Talk that Manchester United are considering playing one of their pre-season friendlies at Wrigley Field, the iconic baseball stadium that is famous for its ivy covered brick outfield wall and is the home to the Chicago Cubs. Chicago is the world headquarters of Aon, official shirt sponsors of Manchester United Football Club, so the news makes perfect sense. However, discussions are still ongoing to have United play at the 41,000 seater.

Manchester United last toured North America in the summer of 2010 when they played friendlies in Toronto, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Houston and Guadalajara. The tour was a rousing success for United and saw the debut of Mexican superstar Javier Hernandez (aka Chicharito). In previous years, Manchester United conducted pre-season tours of North America in 1950, 1952, 1960, 1970, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 2003, 2004 and 2010.

If you live in North America, which cities would you recommend that Manchester United include in their summer tour? Post your suggestions in the comments section below.

Hat tip to Brian Hermreck for sending in the news tip regarding Ferdinand’s tweet. If you have a news tip, send them in to thegaffer[at]epltalk[dot]com

About Christopher Harris

Founder and publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris is the managing editor of the site. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who has lived in Florida since 1984, has supported Swansea City since 1979. He's also an expert on soccer in South Florida, and got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.
Harris launched EPL Talk in 2005, which was rebranded as World Soccer Talk in 2013.
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68 Responses to Manchester United to Launch Pre-Season Tour of USA, Reports Say

I don’t see how the Wrigley Field thing would work. They recently played a college football game there and both teams had to have their offensive drives go towards the same end zone because the field was not long enough to have two regulation length end zones. In addition, it will be during the baseball season, so not sure if they will want to sod over the infield. Having said all that, it would be very cool to see.

The AON Chicago angle means Chi-town is a likely stop, but they’ll be at iconic Soldier Field and not Wrigley. No way they can keep the Cubs away long enough to remove pitchers mound, sod the infield and keep that sod in place long enough to be settled so it doesn’t rip up during the match

Once upon a time Wrigley Field was the home of pro soccer in Chicago. So it can be done. Recent changes to the ball park may make the field a tight fit but with a few rule changes Northwestern had a great football game this year and the BlackHawks have played hockey there.

Man U in effect in fact played in Soldier Field during a previous US tour and drew about 55,000. Soldier Field is a excellent venue for soccer and normally sees the USMNT visit each year. Toyota Park has a small capacity and is a excellent facility for soccer and has played host to Chelsea, Everton, AC Milan, and Club America to name a few well known clubs.

Wrigley most likely will be the choice due to it’s fame and party atmosphere which will also allow for a sky high ticket price.

Anywhere in San Francisco Bay Area. There is a huge soccer/football following in the Bay Area. Just make sure the same group doesnt put it on as the one who organized the Real Madrid visit to San Fran this year. They lied and guaranteed the likes of Kaka and Iker and Ramos would be there. Then half the people didnt even get in until halftime because of horrible security. What a waste of time. But in saying that, I would love to see Manchester United play in the bay area.

I would rather see them at Oakland coliseum or ATT park than Candlestick. I went to that Real Madrid match and was waiting for will call tickets. But the line was so long that I went and got tickets from the scalpers, so in effect had to double pay. The stick is a dump, i’m a Niner season ticket holder so I’m very familiar with it. On the bright side, that was a great ending to that match. Ronaldo free kick winner in the last 7 or 8 minutes. What a kick that was!

There’s a little old town in the midwest called Chicago which should probably be the soccer HQ in the U.S.

Since Aon is also based in the Chi, maybe they should come here. It seems like they would get a pretty decent turnout during the summer. Nothing MAJOR because I mean, it IS Chicago, but it just seems like it would be a good idea to come here.

Kind of like the WC wasn’t going to have any games hosted here before that whole plan went down the drain…

Seriously, Mayor Daley is gone now…we can have soccer-related events in Chicago again.

Can’t edit my previous post, but I don’t see how Soldier Field doesn’t make more sense than Wrigley. It might draw more word of mouth given the novelty of the idea of playing a soccer game at a baseball stadium here in Chicago (not that it hasn’t been done elsewhere before, as was pointed out by a previous poster), but Soldier Field? By the lake? We did have the US v England and Brazil here before, it’s the perfect venue.

Maybe play a match at Toyota Park too. Go big for Chicago please. Why do we keep getting shafted like this?

Watch one sounders match and tell me that a friendly in Seattle wouldn’t be crazy. In March the US is playing a friendly against Argentina there. In general, the northwest (Seattle, Portland, Vancouver) has an excellent soccer following and would provide a terrific atmosphere (coming from someone in Montana, of course).

L.A. has to be one of the spots if this is true since they missed out on it during this past summer’s tour. It’d be great to see them on the same field as Becks and there’s a huge Chicharito fan base in the L.A. area.

Come to Seattle, the best fans in the MLS since they began playing two years. I have been to numerous games in Seattle and it is the closest that the U.S. has to offer for a “European Like” atmosphere at games. Have been to games in Germany, England, Spain, Portagal and Italy and Seattle is near or surapasses some of the teams across the pond for support. It doesn’t matter who United would play in Seattle, because the fan base is so good that the seats will be packed. I have loved United since pre-Ferguson and I still haven’t got to watch them play live, please bring them to Seattle!

I don’t get it last year Man U practiced and trained to Soldier Field courtesy of AON, yet they played not one game in Chicago, in 2004 or 2005 I think not sure, but Bayern Munich played Man U to a sold out crowd of almost 60,000 at Soldier Field, pretty awesome considering. Mexico and Poland have had friendlies here too. I’d have to say city wise Chicago, Seattle, New York, Atlanta, would probably be some of the US biggest soccer markets, but I can probably bank that none of the big EPL or SPL teams will come to Chicago.

Boston. There are more youth soccer players in Massachusetts than in any state except California. Massachusetts is mad for soccer. Parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, etc watch soccer every week.

I would really like united to come to Toronto again like last summer, they have so many canadian fans and it is so awesome that we can get to see them play it was the hightlight of my year last year. please come back again bev

San Francisco bay area. This is s soccer mad area. They could pay at the Stanford stadium, AT&T stadium or even the Oakland coliseum….they would all be sell outs. Come on MAn Utd….give us a visit. You will have a great tie in the bay area.